the last two discourses we called your attention to two prophecies
that are now fulfilling; they are on parallel lines of time and
territory. The first had reference to the rapid accumulation of the
lands of the earth by Israel. Accepting the Anglo-Saxons as being the
children and descendants of Jacob, it naturally follows that the
prophetic blessings and promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their
heirs, should find a fulfilment in these, the latter days, and that such
fulfilment should be found in the English nation, among the Jews, and in
the United States. It is easy to see and believe that the curses
prophetically pronounced on Judah and Israel have been fulfilled,
especially on the House of Judah. The promises to the House of Israel
are now being grandly realised. England is in possession of the isles of
the sea, the coasts of the earth, the waste and desolate places, the
heathen is her inheritance, and she is inheriting the seed of the
Gentiles, and causing their desolate cities to be inhabited. From the
taking of Jamaica, by General Penn, in 1655, to the peaceful cession of
Cyprus, the course of this little island nation has been onward and
upward. And if her conquests and progress are not amenable to prophecy,
for an interpretation, then the wonder is still greater. The facts are
with us, and must be accounted for some way. The second had reference to
the multitudinous seed of Israel in the latter days. Till two hundred
years ago the Anglo-Saxons were not in this respect distinct from other
races; indeed, for centuries they were distinct rather for their weakness
in multiplying power and number. Many other races have exceeded them in
this particular. But no sooner do we come abreast of the latter day time
than we find the laws of centuries changed. In thermal science it is an
axiom that heat expands all bodies, and of course that cold contracts
them. But to this general rule there is one beautiful and benevolent
exception: it is in water; for if we start with water at thirty-two
degrees, we find the remarkable phenomenon of cold expanding all below
thirty-two, and heat expanding all above. If we take water at 212
degrees and withdraw it from the heat, it will continue to contract till
we reach thirty-two; then the law is reversed, and the water expands.
Now the reversion of this law, at this particular point, is wonderfully
expressive of Divine forethought and benevolence. By such a change i